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Golden era for Canada’s NHL franchises about to dawn: Cox

If he didn’t want all that was offered to him last summer as a Maple Leaf — the fame, the riches, the marquee billing on the early Hockey Night in Canada game every Saturday for the next decade, the pressure of trying to do for this city what Jake Arrieta and Javier Baez and Co. have done for the north side of Chicago — then he was wise, very wise, not to accept the offer.

It would have been one thing if Stamkos had been drafted by the Leafs and grown into the role of leading man, but quite another to have it thrust upon him in mid-career if he was reluctant to accept it.

You have to really want all that comes with being the leader of the Leafs, and Stamkos clearly didn’t. Good for him that he knows himself that well and resisted the temptation.

He and the Lightning will be Cup contenders for the next three to five years in the relative quiet of Tampa, and the only time he’ll have to accept a tidal wave of media scrutiny will be in the post-season. The Bolts have excellent management and ownership, organizational stability the Leafs seem to have now but, as history tells us, doesn’t necessarily last that long in Toronto.

What Stamkos will miss, however, is being part of what may turn into a truly golden era for Canada’s NHL franchises.

Yes, yes, it’s probably early to forecast such a wave is coming. But the signs are surely there, strong ones.

The sun is setting on the Chicago and Los Angeles hockey empires. Both the Hawks and Kings may win another Stanley Cup, but the combination of aging stars and the salary cap will ultimately force those teams to rebuild, either on the fly like Detroit’s trying to do or by re-visiting the bottom rungs of the NHL, which is how both got to where they are now.

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Pittsburgh? Well, Sidney Crosby is 29 and just back from another concussion, Evgeny Malkin is 30 and Marc-Andre Fleury is 31 and likely out of a starting job. Matt Murray is set to succeed Fleury, but there are no replacements for Crosby and Malkin. So last year’s surprising Cup run — from 12th in the conference to a championship in six months — is unlikely to be repeated.

Then again, Crosby may have other ideas, and he tends to achieve what he wants.

Along with the Lightning, the Florida Panthers look to be a team positioned to move into the vacuum created when the Hawks, Kings and Pens are forced to step back. St. Louis has to believe they have a championship in that roster.

But then, folks, we will turn to Canada. Montreal, with Carey Price back and healthy, could contend this season. The Habs, with veterans like Shea Weber, Max Pacioretty and a seemingly hungry Alexander Radulov, are ahead of the coming Canadian wave.

Edmonton, meanwhile, may not be far behind. Watching the Oilers isn’t like watching a bunch of kids anymore with sturdy vets like Milan Lucic, Patrick Maroon and Adam Larsson now part of the group, and Connor McDavid may already be the league’s best player.

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Taylor Hall and Nail Yakupov may be gone, but there’s still lots of young talent. Hey, it’s good news that Jesse Puljujarvi isn’t finding it easy to get all the ice time he wants.

Winnipeg, meanwhile, has Mark Scheifele, Nik Ehlers, Patrik Laine and more, while Calgary has Sean Monahan, Johnny Hockey, Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. In Toronto, the team Stamkos shunned, there is undeniable talent with forwards Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner.

Ottawa and Vancouver? Well, it’s not clear where those clubs are headed, although the Canucks are off to a fine start this season.

So the reality is, folks, that by 2020 there are going to be exciting and probably formidable teams in Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, and possibly Toronto as well. Individually, you could have legitimate superstars in Price, McDavid, Gaudreau, Laine and Matthews. Maybe Puljujarvi, Bennett, Scheifele and Marner as well. That will surely help Rogers and its $5.2-billion investment, and create a wave of interest in Canadian teams unseen since the late 1980s and early 1990s.

My radio pal Bob McCown disagrees, but my belief is that if and when the Leafs rise to where Brendan Shanahan believes they will rise, the excitement created over the past 18 months by the Blue Jays will seem moderate by comparison. We’ll see, and this being the Leafs, of course, it may never happen.

So that’s what Stamkos will miss. Being a part of all that in his prime. The fact that all seven Canadian teams missed the playoffs last season made it easier last summer to glance at the hockey landscape in the Great White North and see desolation, defeat and pressure without reward. By contrast, the Lightning are an excellent franchise poised to win now, and the sunshine of Florida feels that much more comfortable than Canada in January.

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But in a few years, that contrast will seem less vivid, and Canada will be where the NHL action will be. Folks and media in various U.S. hockey cities will sneer at what they will perceive to be an undeserved sense of shinny superiority up north, particularly in Toronto, and that’s okay. They’re probably right. We haven’t had a Cup winner since ’93, after all.

But Canada is the world’s best hockey nation by pretty much any measure. And when the wave hits in the next few years, it’s going to be the place where hockey stars get to shine.

Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for the Star. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Follow him @DamoSpin.

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